World Religions News

First of two parts

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Notable people and events in the Jewish LA community.

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A person detained is taken to a parking lot on the far north side of the city before being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2025. / Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 13, 2025 / 18:26 pm (CNA).

The Catholic advocacy organization CatholicVote has released a report examining the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts, concluding Christians must balance charity toward the immigrant with the common good of the receiving state.

The report, titled “Immigration Enforcement and the Christian Conscience,” comes on the heels of the special message on immigration released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) at its fall plenary meeting this past week. 

“A faithful Catholic approach to immigration begins not with politics but with people. Compassion, hospitality, and solidarity with the poor are not optional virtues,” CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt said in a press release accompanying the report.

“They are at the center of the Gospel,” she added. “Yet, mercy and justice travel together. One without the other distorts both.”

The report by author Benjamin Mann labels the Biden administration’s border policies as “reckless” and credits them for resulting in human trafficking, sexual exploitation of immigrants without legal status, and rampant drug cartels. 

“Catholics who advocate strong but humane immigration enforcement are sometimes accused of disobeying their bishops or the pope, and even violating Church teaching,” the report states. “Properly speaking, there is no such thing as an official ‘Catholic position’ on the practical details of immigration policy.”

The report says that “despite what some Church leaders in America have indicated, a faithful Catholic can support strong and humane immigration law enforcement — by means such as physical barriers, detention, and deportation — without violating the teaching of the Church.” 

The report asserts that Catholic teaching on immigration has been distorted by “an ideological immigration lobby” within the Church that “has sought to present amnesty, minimal law enforcement, and more legal immigration as the only acceptable position for Catholics.” 

“This is not an act of disobedience or disrespect toward the Church hierarchy but a legitimate difference of opinion according to magisterial teaching,” the report says. 

“The truth is that faithful Catholics can certainly disagree with the anti-enforcement position — even if some bishops happen to share the policy preferences of these activists. Such disagreement is not a dissent from Church teaching,” the document continues, citing “recent popes” as having said the Catholic Church “has no ‘official position’ on the practical details of issues like immigration policy.” 

“Rather, our faith teaches a set of broad moral principles about immigration, and their application in public life is a matter of practical judgment for laypersons,” the report said.

The CatholicVote document further argues that “it is actually immoral in the eyes of the Church for a country to accept immigrants to the detriment of its own citizens,” citing paragraph 1903 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states: “Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, ‘authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse.’”

When the main character dies in the second sentence, you hope, at least, for a feature-length flashback...

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BALTIMORE (RNS) — The nurses had hoped this would be the year the U.S. Catholic bishops would listen to their concerns about hospital understaffing that they say lowers standards of care and makes doing their jobs a physical trial.

Instead, the nurses and their supporters gathered outside the harbor-front hotel where the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was holding its annual fall meeting. Braced against a whipping wind off the water, they recounted about staffing issues and union busting at Catholic hospitals. 

“ Inside our hospitals, we see indignity every day,” said Monica Gonzalez, a registered nurse at Ascension Seton Medical Center in Austin, Texas. “We see nurses running from room to room, taking on unsafe assignments, skipping breaks, holding our bladders and holding our tears.”

The deprivations, she said, were because Ascension, a Catholic hospital network of 95 medical centers and 30 senior living facilities, “ is putting profits over people.”

When asked for a response, Ascension sent a reply from its nearest affiliated hospital, Ascension St. Agnes in Baltimore. A spokesperson there told Religion News Service, “Our staffing and patient care practices are grounded in evidence-based approaches and flexible staffing models designed to meet the evolving needs of our patients.”

Inside the hotel, the bishops were focused on health care, but not on the nurses’ claims. On the last day of the meeting, the bishops were poised to approve newly amended guidance for moral issues in Catholic health care. 

The new guidance, an update to the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, or ERDs, specifically prohibits Catholic hospitals from medical interventions to help transgender individuals “transform sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex (or to nullify sexual characteristics of a human body).”

Transgender Catholics object that the USCCB has failed to meaningfully consult their community. The bishops “really have shown no willingness at all to understand the reality that transgender people are experiencing and to shape our care and ministry around the realities of their lives,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy organization DignityUSA.

In practice, said Duddy-Burke, a married lesbian and mother to a trans son, Catholics hospitals already had not been providing gender-affirming care.

“ It’s still a grave disappointment,” she said. “ Any kind of barrier to health care just makes it harder for trans people and for lots of other Catholics to feel included in our church. It feels very discriminatory and like our lives and our health just don’t matter to church officials in the same way that other people’s do.”

More than 1 in 7 patients in the United States are cared for in Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Brooklyn Auxiliary Bishop James Massa, who led the doctrine committee behind the directives, said the group had consulted the Catholic Health Association, the National Catholic Bioethics Center, the Catholic Medical Association, the Alliance of Catholic Health Care and the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in putting together the new guidance.

Maxwell Kuzma, a Catholic and trans man, said that he felt “so much anxiety for young trans people now.” He explained, “ Being early in your transition and feeling like all the institutions that are supposed to be there to accompany or to support you, to not want you, that’s a really big blow.”

But he feels confident that “ there is a huge diverse, true history of the church that has a place for trans people like me.” Transitioning has been “a spiritual gift” because “ I get to feel more connected to God because I am more myself in my body,” Kuzma said.

“Those who lead in the church are called to care for all of God’s people — without exception. This includes LGBTQ people,” Kuzma said. “As the state moves to restrict transgender care, the church must not join in that harm, but instead defend the dignity and safety of every person.”

Alex Dworak, a family medicine doctor in Omaha, Nebraska, who treats trans youth as part of his practice, said: “ Trans patients already face egregious health disparities in both access to health care and rates of chronic diseases, substance use, mental health conditions and death both by suicide and by being victims of violent crime.

“ This is going to add even more strain to a very underserved, marginalized group at a time when they are facing intense political attack and already struggling far more than the average American,” Dworak said of the bishops’ new guidelines.

“ There’s been a fire hose of misinformation about what trans care is, about why people seek it,  and also about the naturalistic fallacy or the biological fallacy that chromosomes and sex and gender are very rigid,” the doctor said. 

The USCCB’s newly elected leadership reflects the conference’s emphasis on opposing “gender ideology” — the idea that sex and gender are not rigid or binary but fluid across a broad spectrum of human sexual experience.

New president Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley’s latest pastoral letter called the “transgender movement” an “evil infecting our world,” and newly elected vice president Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, shepherded the initial phases of the new directives when he was chair of the doctrine committee.

At the USCCB meeting, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron, who has been a leading voice in the conference on gender and sexuality issues, spoke in support of the changes before they passed. “I think in our culture, where this kind of neo-gnostic anthropology is on display — where the real me is buried deep down inside, the body is there to be manipulated — if we can’t be a bulwark, we should at least be a countersign to that,” he said.

The nurses outside the hotel called on the bishops to enforce existing directives about caring for the poor and to back their union against what they say are union-busting activities at Ascension’s hospitals. Organized through the National Nurses United union, the nurses expanded their efforts this year from a focus on Ascension to join with nurses employed by CommonSpirit, another large Catholic health care system.

Marvin Ruckle, a neonatal intensive care unit nurse in Wichita, Kansas, at Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph, was among those who spoke at the rally. “ We need the bishops, we need the pope to listen,” he said. “Ascension, CommonSpirit — they are not following the teachings.”

Kevin Burdinski of the Maryland Catholic Labor Network said apostolic nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Vatican’s ambassador in the U.S., declined the nurses’ invitation to a dinner hosted by the network but had sent a message to the nurses. “ His Eminence sincerely appreciates the invitation and the important work your organization carries out in promoting Catholic social teaching in the sphere of labor and economic life,” wrote Pierre, according to Burdinski. 

Sandy Reding, a Catholic operating-room nurse at Bakersfield Memorial, a CommonSpirit facility in California, and a president of the  California Nurse Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, said her union had successfully negotiated for safe staffing ratios as well as break nurses — nurses who fill in while those on a shift go to the bathroom or take a lunch break. 

At other CommonSpirit hospitals, such as St. Joseph Health Regional Hospital in Bryan, Texas, where Reding is supporting nurses advocating for union representation, “they’re at bare bones,” she said. “It’s dangerous.” She cited a finding that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association that for each additional patient a nurse receives, mortality increases 7%.

“ We used to have nuns in the hospital that would provide a moral compass,” Reding said. “And now we have no nuns, and the nurses are the moral compass.”

NNU says that CommonSpirit is harassing and surveilling nurses who promote unionizing, threatening pay and benefit cuts if they unionize and holding captive-audience meetings.

CommonSpirit did not respond to a request for comment. Fort Worth, Texas, Bishop Michael Olson, chair of the conference’s health care issues committee, declined a request for an interview, as did St. Joseph’s diocesan bishop, Daniel Garcia of the Diocese of Austin. 

(RNS) — Attorneys for Ya’akub Ira Vijandre, a Filipino artist being held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Georgia, are challenging his detention in court, arguing he is being “punished for his faith, his speech and his political beliefs.”

A Muslim filmmaker and activist whose legal name is Jacob, Vijandre was detained at gunpoint by ICE officers while leaving his Dallas-area home for work on Oct. 7. His lawyers say officers unjustly targeted him based on his social media activity, which immigration enforcement officials claim “glorify terrorism,” according to a recent legal filing calling on the government to release him. 

“By detaining Mr. Vijandre for his activism and journalism, the United States government is mirroring the tactics it has long criticized abroad: suppressing voices that dare challenge those in power, intimidating journalists, and chilling public debate,” Maria Kari, an attorney representing Vijandre, said in a statement Thursday (Nov. 13).

Vijandre, 38, is one of several immigrants who have been detained this year after speaking out against the war in Gaza, including Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk, Dallas community leader Marwan Marouf and Sami Hamdi, a British journalist who was detained and released this month.

Civil rights groups have criticized these detentions as violating constitutional protections for freedom of speech.

Vijandre posted publicly about his opposition to U.S. foreign policy, the policies of the Israeli government and abuse of prisoners accused of terrorism—speech that his lawyers say is protected by his First Amendment rights. “Equating such speech to ‘terrorism’ to justify detention would risk criminalizing a broad array of protected speech critical of U.S. government policy engaged in by citizens and non-citizens alike,” his lawyers wrote in a habeas corpus filed last month.

In an updated filing, the lawyers wrote that government officials have not shown that Vijandre “has done anything more than express ‘his beliefs’” and “have not pointed to any actions Mr. Vijandre has taken to showing he is a ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist supporter,’ as they claim.”

“The government is detaining a longtime resident because of his social media posts criticizing and reporting on prison conditions and due process violations,” said attorney Eric Lee, who is part of a team representing Vijandre. “If this constitutes ‘domestic terrorism,’ then who will be jailed next?” 

The Nov. 10 filing cites a Department of Homeland Security deportation officer, Lonnie Felps, who identified three social media posts as reasons to initiate the process of stripping Vijandre’s protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — commonly known as DACA — in September and then detain him.

The first is an Instagram post that Vijandre liked depicting an image of the Shahada, or Muslim declaration of faith, along with an unattributed quote that Felps claimed is from an ISIS publication. The other posts include a religious statement and a martial arts video Vijandre posted with a BB gun demonstrating Texas’ stand your ground law.

“Based on my investigation and analysis of the social media related to VIJANDRE and other information, I believe VIJANDRE supports terrorist ideology and terrorist individuals, and, therefore, presents a threat to the national security interests of the United States,” Felps said on Oct. 24.

In a statement to Religion News Service on Oct. 15, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Vijandre was a subject of interest in a Dallas Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation. Vijandre’s lawyers maintain he was targeted in part because he refused to work as an informant for the FBI when asked in 2023.

Vijandre was born in the Philippines and lawfully settled in the U.S. as a child through his father’s nonimmigrant visa. Young Vijandre was later granted protection under DACA; that status is valid through May 2026. He has not been charged with a crime, according to the filing.

His friend Mohamed Ayachi told RNS in October that Vijandre is a beloved storyteller and photographer recognized for documenting local pro-Palestine demonstrations and community events and posting his coverage on his social media accounts.

“When ICE is not able to find criminals, they start picking up innocent, good people and trying to paint them as criminals to justify what they’re doing,” Ayachi said last month.

Vijandre is being held at Folkston ICE Processing Center in Folkston, Georgia. His next hearing is set for Nov. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.

RELATED: ICE detains another Dallas Muslim activist, a DACA recipient

Paul Scherz briefs bishops about artificial intelligence at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12, 2025. / Credit: Tessa Gervasini/CNA

Baltimore, Maryland, Nov 13, 2025 / 13:50 pm (CNA).

The U.S. bishops received a briefing on the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI) from Paul Scherz at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Fall Plenary Assembly in Baltimore.

Scherz, a theology professor at the University of Notre Dame, has studied the ethics of AI. At the Nov. 12 meeting, Scherz highlighted some of his findings and shared how the bishops should approach the technology within their dioceses.

AI technologies “have great potential to contribute to human flourishing and the common good,” Scherz said. “But note that it would be a mistake to describe these programs as intelligent in the same way that humans are.”

“They lack consciousness and any kind of subjective relationship to the world. So as Pope Leo says, ‘The person is not a system of algorithms. He or she is a creature, relationship, mystery.’ Thus, despite their power and utility, they shouldn’t be called persons or truly intelligent,” he said.

“We’re made for a relationship as created in the image of the triune God. We don’t find our good alone,” Scherz said. “Instead, our individual flourishing is enmeshed with the flourishing of those around us. Together, we see the common good in our common life.”

AI in Catholic ministries

In his discussion, Scherz highlighted three Catholic ministries that can implement AI while also detailing the potential threats. 

The “largest Catholic ministry” AI can be implemented in is health care. Since “17% of U.S. patients receive care at a Catholic institution, it’s almost certainly the ministry in which the most non-Catholics interact with the Church,” Scherz said. 

“Through these health care institutions, the Church realizes Jesus’ call to heal the sick,” Scherz said. “Health care is also a sector of the economy that has seen a rapid adoption of AI technologies.”

“For the past decade, health care technology companies have sought to put the vast scores of data embedded in their electronic medical records to use and train AI,” Scherz said. “Insurance companies are using AI to help fix and complete claims that lack incorrect information.”

The issue is the “bias from lack of diversity in training data, such as early genomics studies largely containing research subjects who were middle-class and European descent,” he said.

While AI is used to improve diagnostics and enact greater efficiency, we must be wary of the “significant dangers,” Scherz said. “Anything that restricts basic access in a biased manner would be an offense against the equal human dignity emerging from our shared participation in the image of God.”

Also, “the algorithm cannot substitute a gesture of closeness or a word of consolation,” Scherz said. “Much of what practitioners do is not a pure analytic process. They negotiate with patients to accept care, maintain the spirits of people suffering from a chronic disease, and tinker with therapy so that they better fit the complicated lives of patients.”

“A second ministry heavily affected by AI are Catholic schools,” Scherz said. Education and technology entrepreneurs “are promising a future in which AI enables personalized education for every student.”

“In this vision, AI would be a personal tutor for each child, or at least develop learning plans tailored to the individual,” but AI cannot replace teachers, because they “do more than convey knowledge,” Scherz said.

Teachers “model essential human qualities and inspire the joy of discovery. This relationship of encounter is at the heart of true education. The teacher fosters virtues and serves as an exemplar,” he said.

He also highlighted the clear threat that students will abuse AI and use it to complete writing assignments. Scherz said: “This is a crisis for schools, especially those of the liberal arts curriculum like Catholic schools, because writing is not just about producing content. Writing essays forces a student to think, to organize ideas, to argue coherently.” 

Lastly, Scherz addressed AI in the pastoral field. He said: “There is increasing evidence that people are turning to chatbots for religious resources” and AI “is becoming a standard for religious authorities.”

“People are prompting AI, or developing AI applications, that frame their responses and act in the persona of God or a religious figure,” Scherz said. “People are using AI to develop spiritual inventories or to provide spiritual direction.”

“Catholic sites are using AI to provide laypeople with access to Church teaching,” Scherz said. He explained that pastors and parishioners using AI as a research tool to find interpretations of Scripture, catechism information, or doctrine could be beneficial.

For these Catholic AI systems to work, people must actually examine the source material provided. Scherz said: “Unfortunately, people tend to rely on the AI summary, and what starts as a research tool can frequently become more than that.”

AI companions “are incredibly dangerous, especially due to AI’s tendencies toward hallucination and psychosis,” Scherz said. Also “engagement with chatbots can prevent actual encounter with pastors, as people may feel their needs are meant by AI.”

AI “also raises concerns on the side of pastors,” Scherz said. “There are increasing reports of pastors using it for the spiritual aspect of their work, like writing homilies or preparing religious education materials.”

“The problem is that, as with writing in general, homilies are in part formative — shaping the pastor as he engages with Scripture,” Scherz said. “Totally abnegating this role to AI would undermine the authenticity of the pastor’s witness.”

“Technologies provide great opportunities, but also great dangers. They can lead to injustice, alienation, and deformation of character,” Scherz said. “At the same time, AI offers greater efficiency and new capacities for serving the common good.”

Scherz said: “The emergence of AI provides the Church with an evangelical opportunity … People are asking basic questions of what it means to be human for the first time in a long time” and “the Church can provide those answers.”